The present invention relates to a method and a device for milking dairy animals.
Continuous efforts are being made in order to reduce the costs of producing milk. One way of doing this is to increase the frequency of milking from twice a day to four or more times a day as this can give a 15-20% increase in milk production. However to avoid increased labour costs the animals need to be milked automatically. One type of automatic milking system is the so-called voluntary milking system (VMS). In one such VMS system, known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,058 dairy animals are permitted to move freely and can eat and be milked whenever they want. In this system each animal is provided with a coded transponder. A sensing means next to each of the feeding stations provided in the VMS is actuated by the transponder and is connected to a computer which senses which individual animal is visiting the feeding station, This computer further controls the dispensing of food to each animal. This depends on how much food the individual animal is supposed to be fed each day and how much the animal has already been fed that day. Some feeding stations are combined with milking machines and if the computer detects that a certain time has passed since the individual animal in the combined feeding and milking station was last milked then the computer can activate a means for restraining the animal in the combined feeding and milking station and it can also activate an automatic milking robot. The automatic milking robot then starts milking the animal. Once the milking operation is finished the animal is release from the station.
A disadvantage with the above system is that it is not possible to ensure that the animals enter a combined feeding and milking station at the optimum time to enable the maximum milk production. This is because an animal which could be milked may choose to eat from a simple feeding station and thereby miss an opportunity to be milked at the optimum time.
The object of the invention is to solve the above stated problems.
The present invention solves the above stated problems by means of a device having the features mentioned in the characterising part of claim 1. The above problems are also solved by means of a method having the features mentioned in the characterising part of claim 8.
In a method and device in accordance with the present invention, a voluntary milking system is provided with means for controlling the dispensing of feed to the individual animals so that the individual animal is directed to the appropriate type of feeding station depending on whether it needs to be milked or not. In one embodiment of the invention at a predetermined time, corresponding, for example, to an optimum time to milk the animal after the last time that an individual animal has been milked, or to a time shortly before the optimum time, or to an average time between milkings, the computer commands all the simple feeding stations to stop supplying feed to the animal in question. The animal will then only be able to receive feed at the combined milking and feeding station. The animals soon learn that when the simple feeding stations do not dispense feed they have to go to a combined feeding and milking station. In this way the animals are encouraged to enter the combined feeding and milking stations.
In a second embodiment of the invention the combined feeding and milking stations are commanded to only dispense food to an individual animal if the actual time is after the commencement of the optimum time for milking the individual animal. In this way the animals which do are not re for milking are discouraged from staying in the combined feeding and milking stations. This leaves these stations free for use by animals which are ready for milking.
In a further embodiment of the invention the rate of feed supply in the simple feeding stations is lower than the rate of feed supply in the combined feeding and milking stations. The animals soon learn to try to eat in preference from the combined milking and feeding stations. This ensures that the combined feeding and milking stations are visited often by each animal and hence the chances are increased that an animal will be feeding in a combined feeding and milking station when the optimum time for milking occurs.
In another embodiment of the invention the computer also monitors the milling of the animal in the combined feeding and milking station and once the milking session is over it commands the combined feeding and milking station to stop supplying feed to the animal. At the same time it commands the simple feeding stations to allow feed to be dispensed to the animal. In this way the animal is encouraged to leave the combined feeding and milking station when the milking cycle is over.
The invention will be described more closely in the following by means of examples of embodiments and FIGURE.